Boxed-In

This is the fifth of my recent roll o' fabric quintet:

The pattern is "Boxed In" from Julie Herman's book, Skip the Borders. I checked this book out from my local library and have since purchased my own copy. So many of the designs speak to me. It is a fabulous book!

Of all of the quilts I've made from the roll o' fabric, this one is definitely my favorite.

I quilted the heck out of this one. I started by doing some stabilizing straight lines with my walking foot along all of the box borders. Then I quilted all of the squares-- each one has that sort of flower design. Finally, I quilted circles through all of the solid green parts. Throughout, I used Aurifil Cotton Mako 50/2 in Dove (#2600).

The quilting makes me happy!

Even the backing makes me happy. This hummingbird print has been sitting in my stash for quite some time. I was delighted to find that the colors in the print actually coordinated with the colors in the top. Yay for stashbusting!

The Project Linus label is stitched on already, so the quilt is good to go (pardon my sideways pic).

Happy!

Easy as 10

The fourth in my roll o' fabric quintet:

This is "Easy as 10" from the book, Simple Quilts from Me and My Sister Designs: Easy as 1, 2, 3.

I checked this book out from the library and haven't invested in my own copy yet-- but I need to! I also made "Easy as 11" from this same book. The instructions for both quilts were straightforward and very easy to follow, and both were quick to put together. And there are a number of other fun designs in the book as well!

On this one, I tried to add to the quilt by quilting in a secondary design-- the interlocking diamonds around the squares. I think it worked pretty well. I also quilted flowers in the center of each colored square (using the fabulous Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters as inspiration). Through the paisley bands, I stitched a figure 8 design, but it is kind of hidden in the print. Throughout, I used Aurifil Mako 50/2 in White (#2024).

This is the last of that retro pepto-pink fabric... woo!

And there is the happy Project Linus label. I'm loving the orange binding too. It is finished by machine using the Red Pepper Quilts Binding Tutorial.

Easy as DONE!

"Floating Triangles"

Oh, my gosh! It has been a busy couple of weeks! Spring Break involved many adventures-- but blogging was not one of them. But, I'm back and ready to continue with the Project Linus roll o' fabric parade of quilts. This is the third of the five I recently finished:

The design is from the fabulous book, Skip the Borders, by Julie Herman (of Jaybird Quilts fame). It is called "Floating Triangles."

It really is such a neat design! It speaks to me. And I appreciated that I didn't have to stress out about cutting off any triangle points.

I kept the quilting pretty simple, beginning with straight lines around the focal spot where the triangles come together in the lower left corner, and then more straight lines up the main paths from the outside of the diamond to the outer edges of the quilt. Then I stippled over the center of the diamond area and everywhere else. I used Aurifil Mako 50/2 in White (#2024) throughout.

Another uninspiring back here... just trying to use that stash!

There's that happy Project Linus label. And this is another machine-finished binding as well. I was feeling brave though and attempted a contrasting rainbow variegated thread (Superior Threads King Tut 40/3 cotton, #921). My machine binding skills are still not as consistent as I'd like, but I am definitely getting better with practice.

I really like this quilt! Hopefully it will make someone else just as happy.

Easy as 11

Here's the next in my recent roll o' fabric quilt quintet:

"Easy as 11" from Simple Quilts from Me and My Sister Designs: Easy as 1, 2, 3.

This is such a simple, but fun, design. Mine looks maybe a little odd, as it is square rather than the intended rectangle. I had to omit a couple of rows to make it work with the amount of fabric I had. This one finished at 47.5" x 47.5".

What I was most excited about in quilting this one up were the solid stripes. I knew my quilting would show up really well on those, so I wanted to try and do some fun stuff. I took inspiration from Natalia Bonner's book, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting, as well as Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters. I ended up using 4 different designs, including a viney thing in the green stripes, swirls in the blue stripes, flowers in the pink stripes, figure 8s in the orange stripes, and then wide drops in the one coral stripe.

Then I stippled over the background areas. I used Aurifil Mako 50/2 in Dove (#2600) over the stripes and Superior Threads King Tut 40/3 in Parchment (#971) over the background areas.

There's that repro pink backing again. And you can see the Project Linus label down in the lower left corner. I managed to sneak in one of my last remaining bits of background fabric into the binding along with the bright and happy Kona Lagoon.

I have had so much fun working with all of these bright happy fabrics!

Shoo Fly!

I've been finishing up a storm in the last few days. My quilts for Project Linus (all of which feature fabric from the now-depleted dreaded roll) have been quilted and all but one have been bound and labeled. Woo! Let the show and tell begin!

This quilt is made from the trimmed leftovers of another Project Linus quilt. I couldn't bear the thought of just throwing out all of the half-square triangle trimmings, so I designed a project to utilize them.

It is a small quilt, only 36" x 42"-- but there was a lot of stitching involved in all those blocks!

Because the background fabric is so busy, I knew that any quilting I did would kind of get lost in all the pattern going on. So I went ahead and just did an all-over swirly design through the center and in the outermost border. In the colored border, I did some straight lines.

For all of the quilting, I used Aurifil Mako 50/2 in White (#2024).

The back is not the most awesome coordinate, but I really wanted to use my stash, and I had a lot of this fabric. At least it is a happy color!

And here is the special Project Linus label stitched onto the back. You can also see my machine-finished binding (I follow the Red Pepper Quilts binding tutorial).

I'd been calling this quilt "Churn Dash" until I realized it wasn't actually a churn dash block. Ha! After a bit of research, I learned that these are actually shoo fly blocks. Either way, it is a happy little quilt!

Yesterday in the quilt cave...

I thought I'd do a little update on the progress I made during my quilt cave day. My husband stayed home so I was able to spend most of the day in my cave (other than quick stops to get lunch, make dinner, and go an emergency thread run... nothing worse than running out of thread in the midst of quilting, which I nearly did!). It was like my own mini quilt retreat! I was able to check a few things off my list:

I even got some binding strips cut. Woo!!!

Lists can be powerful tools for me. I love seeing those x's as items are completed. It truly gives me a sense of accomplishment. Blogging does that too oftentimes. But putting it out there in the world makes it "real," you know? Sometimes, I'm wanting to go with the flow and see where it takes me without the pressure I put on myself to keep up with the blog. Thus, lack of blogging. I want to make it a priority because I know it keeps me focused. At the same time, I have so much routine and focus in every other aspect of my life that I am finding I don't really want focus-- I want freedom. And I'm lazy. Blogging (writing!) takes so much effort for me. And it is not quick. Clearly, what I really need is to change up my blogging perspective. I'll add that to the list.

Look at that! I did some crafty musing there for a bit. :)

Moving on...

Here are all five of my recent roll o' fabric tops are quilted and ready for binding:

Now I'm about ready to start a new project:

It's time to make a quilt for my Little Bear.

He turns 4 next month.

Mind.
Blown.

Catching up

This weekend is the annual Tri County Quilt Tour. I've participated every year and my husband even took today off so I could go. But I find myself feeling like my time is better spent at home, working on what I have. I think I have reached a total saturation point with fabric and projects right now. Heaven knows, there is no shortage of projects here!

I haven't blogged in a bit, but I have been doing stuff...

Last weekend I made another name pillow (from the "Personalized Name Pillow" pattern by Kimberbell Designs):

They are such a good gift-- fun to make and always so well received.

And the dreaded roll o' fabric? It's gone!!!!

Look at that empty roll! It took eight quilts (and 6 years!), but I finally used it all. Huzzah! Just that little strip of fabric remaining now-- I figure I'll use that in the binding of one or two of them.

I realize now that I haven't shared a pic of the final top I made from the roll. All I have is a kind of bad instagram pic:



But you get the idea? This is another design from the book, Simple Quilts from Me and My Sister Designs: Easy as 1, 2, 3. This is "Easy as 11." I had to change it up a bit as I ran out of fabric-- so I dropped a couple of rows and mine ended up at 48" square. It may not be the most aesthetically pleasing size for this design (it really does look better as a rectangle), but it works.

I've managed to quilt up four of my five recent roll o' fabric quilts. Today I basted the remaining one:

Since I am hoping to spend some quality time in the quilt cave today, I went ahead and wrote up a to-do list to help keep me focused.

And look at that-- one thing checked off the list already. Woo!

Next up: quilting!

And another!

Still feeling determined to use up the dreaded roll o' fabric, I jumped into another project last weekend. Today I have another completed top:

This is another design from Skip the Borders by Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts. It is called "Boxed In." Putting it together took me a little longer than I expected (I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me that sewing 384 little squares together would not take time... but it didn't. Ha!), but it was worth it. I'm really pleased with the result. Just look at how crazy bright and happy it is!!! It still needs to be trimmed to square-off the edges, but I plan to do that after quilting it.

I've got to say, I am really diggin' Ms. Herman's book! There are so many appealing designs with very clear, easy-to-follow instructions. There is actually another design in there that I've already pulled fabrics from the stash to make-- but that one will have to wait a bit. I'm still feeling the drive to use up this roll. I have a plan in mind and a fresh pile of fabric to make it happen:

I picked up these lovely Kona solids from Pink Chalk Fabrics last week. So happy!!!

Weekend warrior!

I'm not sure what got into me, but last weekend was an epic quilty extravaganza! After finally getting around to completing my True Blue top (woo! but I don't have a picture of the top yet... hopefully soon!), I was feeling the need to start something new.

Knowing I wanted to start something fresh and small (i.e., something I can finish in a relatively quick manner), I wandered aimlessly through my stash of patterns and fabrics. Then I stumbled across a roll o' fabric. I acquired the roll in 2009 from a Project Linus work party. There were actually two rolls, and my friend Evelyn threw down the gauntlet and issued a challenge: whoever can get through the roll first wins! I have no idea how much fabric is actually on this roll-- only that it is one, very long, continuous cut, approximately 5.5" wide from selvedge to cut edge. Shortly thereafter, I finished up three quilts (one, two, three) using the fabric and it felt like I hadn't even put a dent in the roll. The roll has been sitting on my floor (buried and out of sight) since that time.

So I spot this roll just sitting there on my floor and inspiration strikes. I immediately started pulling fabrics from my stash and put together this first top:

The design is from the book Simple Quilts from Me and My Sister Designs: Easy as 1, 2, 3 by Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobson of Me and My Sister Designs. This is the "Easy as 10" design. It only took a few hours to cut it out and put it all together.

Feeling motivated at this point, I decided to make another. I took a few more brights out of my stash (27 in all) and made another:

This design, "Floating Triangles," is from Skip the Borders: Easy Patterns for Modern Quilts by Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts. It was definitely more involved than the first top, but overall, it too went together pretty quickly. In making the half-square triangles for this design, there was lots of trimming. So I decided to sew the trimmed corners together resulting in a pile of smaller (2.5") half-square triangles.

Now that I had this pile of 2.5" half-square triangles, clearly I needed to do something with them. So this time I created my own design to use them up:

And by the end of the weekend, I had finished up this top as well.

And check out the giant roll o' fabric now:

Woo! It finally looks like I'm making a dent!

Three tops! And I'm still feelin' the itch to make that roll disappear. I wonder how many more projects it's going to take?

The joy of instant gratification

Another project I managed to complete during my camera's demise was a little quilt for Project Linus using the dreaded (seemingly neverending) roll o' fabric. It was awesome because I started cutting on a Saturday afternoon, and had it quilted and bound by Sunday evening. Truly, it was instant gratification!


The pattern is by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh! Fransson, created for Sew, Mama, Sew! The free pattern is called "Charm Squares Baby Quilt." It was simple and fun to put together, and it let me use up a little of my stash.


It's a small quilt (about 30" x 40") and it was a perfect little weekend project. I was really feeling the need to actually finish something, as all of my current projects are pretty long-term affairs. So no fancy quilting here-- just some happy stippling.


I was able to turn it in at today's Project Linus workshop. Woo hoo!

February Project Linus

Yesterday was the February workday for the local Project Linus chapter. And I even had a quilt to bring along with me!


I call this quilt "Beaded Curtain" because that's kind of what all those long lines made me think of, which also inspired the quilting.


I used white thread in the white areas and did three wavy vertical lines in each section. Then I quilted the colored areas with a bright variegated thread in a wavy criss-cross design that kind of resembles beads.


The pattern came from the book, M'Liss Rae Hawley's Fat Quarter Quilts. The design is called "Parallel Paths." My white bars are wider than what she called for in the pattern, since I wanted to take advantage of the whole width of the roll o' fabric I was using. My quilt ended up at 62" by 67". I used the white print to bind it as well. It wasn't my first choice, but I have a lot of it and want to use it all up. It was a little challenging to work with because it is more of a home dec/canvas weight-- but it got the job done.


And the label.

The focus of this month's workday was to pack up blankets to send to Haiti. We packed 300 blankets and quilts for the cause. Wow! My quilt isn't making the trip to Haiti (it was a little too bulky), but I know it will find a happy place somewhere closer to home.